Massage Therapy - First Client
Having done all from Part One you are now ready for your first client.
If possible as you greet them or as they begin to walk your way, start making observations that may help you in your assessment and treatment.
How are they walking? Are they bent over? Round shouldered? Do they appear tense or uptight?
This is the first part of your detective work prior to the massage session beginning. The second part is asking all the questions like:
Why they are coming for a Therapeutic Massage? If an injury how and what happened? What are the symptoms today? Have they had any other treatment? What is their level of discomfort or pain? Along with past history, allergies etc.
The next step is to plan the Massage Therapy session with them. If relaxation, you need to determine if there are any body parts they don’t want massaged for eg. Stomach or Chest.
Give undressing instructions and how you want them on the table, face up or face down, making sure they are adequately covered. As you begin the massage it is always good to establish that you would like them to let you know if they feel cold, if they would like the Massage Therapy to be deeper or whether it is too deep for them.
Note! It is always best for them to do the talking rather than you asking and disturbing their relaxing massage.
“You should aim to have your fingers so sensitive, that you know at all times exactly how it feels to your client” and with practice this can easily be achieved.
I have found that most come for therapeutic massage because they have a problem or have had a problem and are coming for maintenance. That’s why we offer massage training the way we do through our thorough hands-on massage training courses, to give massage therapists the skills to solve most problems they will encounter.
